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Embedded Systems
An embedded system can be either an independent system or a part of a large system. In this
tutorial, we will explain all the steps necessary to design an embedded system and use it.
Audience
This tutorial has been designed to help the students of electronics learn the basic-to-advanced
concepts of Embedded System and 8051 Microcontroller.
Prerequisites
Before proceeding with this tutorial, you should have a good understanding of the concepts of
basic electronics such as circuits, logic gates, etc.
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Embedded Systems
Table of Contents
About the Tutorial............................................................................................................................................... i
Audience ............................................................................................................................................................. i
Prerequisites ....................................................................................................................................................... i
1. ES OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 1
System ............................................................................................................................................................... 1
2. ES PROCESSORS .......................................................................................................................... 4
Microprocessor .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Microcontroller .................................................................................................................................................. 5
3. ES ARCHITECTURE....................................................................................................................... 7
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Simulators .........................................................................................................................................................11
Emulators..........................................................................................................................................................12
7. ES TERMS.................................................................................................................................. 23
Interrupts ..........................................................................................................................................................24
Assembler Directives.........................................................................................................................................28
9. ES REGISTERS ............................................................................................................................ 29
CALL Instructions...............................................................................................................................................40
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v
1. ES Overview Embedded Systems
System
A system is an arrangement in which all its unit assemble work together according to a set of
rules. It can also be defined as a way of working, organizing or doing one or many tasks
according to a fixed plan. For example, a watch is a time displaying system. Its components
follow a set of rules to show time. If one of its parts fails, the watch will stop working. So we can
say, in a system, all its subcomponents depend on each other.
Embedded System
As its name suggests, Embedded means something that is attached to another thing. An
embedded system can be thought of as a computer hardware system having software embedded
in it. An embedded system can be an independent system or it can be a part of a large system.
An embedded system is a microcontroller or microprocessor based system which is designed to
perform a specific task. For example, a fire alarm is an embedded system; it will sense only
smoke.
It has hardware.
It has Real Time Operating system (RTOS) that supervises the application software and
provide mechanism to let the processor run a process as per scheduling by following a
plan to control the latencies. RTOS defines the way the system works. It sets the rules
during the execution of application program. A small scale embedded system may not
have RTOS.
Tightly constrained All computing systems have constraints on design metrics, but
those on an embedded system can be especially tight. Design metrics is a measure of an
implementation's features such as its cost, size, power, and performance. It must be of
a size to fit on a single chip, must perform fast enough to process data in real time and
consume minimum power to extend battery life.
Reactive and Real time Many embedded systems must continually react to changes
in the system's environment and must compute certain results in real time without any
delay. Consider an example of a car cruise controller; it continually monitors and reacts
to speed and brake sensors. It must compute acceleration or de-accelerations repeatedly
within a limited time; a delayed computation can result in failure to control of the car.
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Memory It must have a memory, as its software usually embeds in ROM. It does not
need any secondary memories in the computer.
Connected It must have connected peripherals to connect input and output devices.
HW-SW systems Software is used for more features and flexibility. Hardware is used
for performance and security.
Advantages
Easily Customizable
Low cost
Enhanced performance
Disadvantages
High development effort
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Sensor It measures the physical quantity and converts it to an electrical signal which
can be read by an observer or by any electronic instrument like an A2D converter. A
sensor stores the measured quantity to the memory.
A-D Converter An analog-to-digital converter converts the analog signal sent by the
sensor into a digital signal.
Processor & ASICs Processors process the data to measure the output and store it to
the memory.
D-A Converter A digital-to-analog converter converts the digital data fed by the
processor to analog data.
Actuator An actuator compares the output given by the D-A Converter to the actual
(expected) output stored in it and stores the approved output.
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2. ES Processors Embedded Systems
Processor is the heart of an embedded system. It is the basic unit that takes inputs and produces
an output after processing the data. For an embedded system designer, it is necessary to have
the knowledge of both microprocessors and microcontrollers.
Processors in a System
A processor has two essential units:
The CU includes a fetch unit for fetching instructions from the memory. The EU has circuits that
implement the instructions pertaining to data transfer operation and data conversion from one
form to another.
The EU includes the Arithmetic and Logical Unit (ALU) and also the circuits that execute
instructions for a program control task such as interrupt, or jump to another set of instructions.
A processor runs the cycles of fetch and executes the instructions in the same sequence as they
are fetched from memory.
Types of Processors
Processors can be of the following categories:
o Microprocessor
o Microcontroller
o Embedded Processor
o Media Processor
GPP core(s) or ASIP core(s) on either an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or
a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) circuit
Microprocessor
A microprocessor is a single VLSI chip having a CPU. In addition, it may also have other units
such as coaches, floating point processing arithmetic unit, and pipelining units that help in faster
processing of instructions.
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Microcontroller
A microcontroller is a single-chip VLSI unit (also called microcomputer) which, although having
limited computational capabilities, possesses enhanced input/output capability and a number of
on-chip functional units.
Microcontroller Chip
Microcontrollers are particularly used in embedded systems for real-time control applications
with on-chip program memory and devices.
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Microprocessor vs Microcontroller
Let us now take a look at the most notable differences between a microprocessor and a
microcontroller.
Microprocessor Microcontroller
RAM, ROM, I/O Ports, and Timers can be RAM, ROM, I/O Ports, and Timers cannot be
added externally and can vary in added externally. These components are to be
numbers. embedded together on a chip and are fixed in
numbers.
Designers can decide the number of Fixed number for memory or I/O makes a
memory or I/O ports needed. microcontroller ideal for a limited but specific
task.
External devices require more space and A microcontroller-based system consumes less
their power consumption is higher. power and takes less space.
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3. ES Architecture Embedded Systems
The 8051 microcontrollers work with 8-bit data bus. So they can support external data memory
up to 64K and external program memory of 64k at best. Collectively, 8051 microcontrollers can
address 128k of external memory.
When data and code lie in different memory blocks, then the architecture is referred as Harvard
architecture. In case data and code lie in the same memory block, then the architecture is
referred as Von Neumann architecture.
Von-Neumann architecture supports simple hardware. It allows the use of a single, sequential
memory. Today's processing speeds vastly outpace memory access times, and we employ a very
fast but small amount of memory (cache) local to the processor.
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Harvard Architecture
The Harvard architecture offers separate storage and signal buses for instructions and data. This
architecture has data storage entirely contained within the CPU, and there is no access to the
instruction storage as data. Computers have separate memory areas for program instructions
and data using internal data buses, allowing simultaneous access to both instructions and data.
Programs needed to be loaded by an operator; the processor could not boot itself. In a Harvard
architecture, there is no need to make the two memories share properties.
Single memory to be shared by both code Separate memories for code and data.
and data.
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Higher speed, thus less time consuming. Slower in speed, thus more time-consuming.
In the early 1980s, computer designers recommended that computers should use fewer
instructions with simple constructs so that they can be executed much faster within the CPU
without having to use memory. Such computers are classified as Reduced Instruction Set
Computer or RISC.
CISC vs RISC
The following points differentiate a CISC from a RISC
CISC RISC
Higher clock cycles per second. Low clock cycle per second.
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4. ES Tools and Peripherals Embedded Systems
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program (or a set of programs) that transforms the source code written
in a programming language (the source language) into another computer language (normally
binary format). The most common reason for conversion is to create an executable program.
The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that translate the source code from a high-
level programming language to a low-level language (e.g., assembly language or machine code).
Cross-Compiler
If the compiled program can run on a computer having different CPU or operating system than
the computer on which the compiler compiled the program, then that compiler is known as a
cross-compiler.
Decompiler
A program that can translate a program from a low-level language to a high-level language is
called a decompiler.
Language Converter
A program that translates programs written in different high-level languages is normally called
a language translator, source to source translator, or language converter.
Preprocessing
Parsing
Code generation
Code optimization
Assemblers
An assembler is a program that takes basic computer instructions (called as assembly language)
and converts them into a pattern of bits that the computer's processor can use to perform its
basic operations. An assembler creates object code by translating assembly instruction
mnemonics into opcodes, resolving symbolic names to memory locations. Assembly language
uses a mnemonic to represent each low-level machine operation (opcode).
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Simulators
Emulator
Simulators
Code is tested for the MCU / system by simulating it on the host computer used for code
development. Simulators try to model the behavior of the complete microcontroller in software.
Functions of Simulators
A simulator performs the following functions
Defines the processor or processing device family as well as its various versions for the
target system.
Monitors the detailed information of a source code part with labels and symbolic
arguments as the execution goes on for each single step.
Provides the status of RAM and simulated ports of the target system for each single step
execution.
Provides trace of the output of contents of program counter versus the processor
registers.
Monitors the detailed information of the simulator commands as these are entered from
the keyboard or selected from the menu.
Provides breakpoints and the trace which are together the important testing and
debugging tool.
In-system programmer
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A big advantage of these kits over simulators is that they work in real-time and thus allow for
easy input/output functionality verification. Starter kits, however, are completely sufficient and
the cheapest option to develop simple microcontroller projects.
Emulators
An emulator is a hardware kit or a software program or can be both which emulates the functions
of one computer system (the guest) in another computer system (the host), different from the
first one, so that the emulated behavior closely resembles the behavior of the real system (the
guest).
Emulation refers to the ability of a computer program in an electronic device to emulate (imitate)
another program or device. Emulation focuses on recreating an original computer environment.
Emulators have the ability to maintain a closer connection to the authenticity of the digital object.
An emulator helps the user to work on any kind of application or operating system on a platform
in a similar way as the software runs as in its original environment.
Synchronous Serial Communication Interface like I2C, SPI, SSC, and ESSI
Debugging like JTAG, ISP, ICSP, BDM Port, BITP, and DP9 ports
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Cost per Unit This is important in terms of final cost of the product in which the
microcontroller is to be used.
Further, make sure you have tools such as compilers, debuggers, and assemblers, available with
the microcontroller. The most important of all, you should purchase a microcontroller from a
reliable source.
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5. ES 8051 Microcontroller Embedded Systems
8031 microcontroller It is another member of the 8051 family. This chip is often
referred to as a ROM-less 8051, since it has 0K byte of on-chip ROM. You must add
external ROM to it in order to use it, which contains the program to be fetched and
executed. This program can be as large as 64K bytes. But in the process of adding
external ROM to the 8031, it lost 2 ports out of 4 ports. To solve this problem, we can
add an external I/O to the 8031.
ROM(bytes) 4K 8K 0K
Timers 2 3 2
I/O pins 32 32 32
Serial port 1 1 1
Interrupt sources 6 8 6
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8051 may also have a number of special features such as UARTs, ADC, Op-amp, etc.
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6. ES I/O Programming Embedded Systems
In 8051, I/O operations are done using four ports and 40 pins. The following pin diagram shows
the details of the 40 pins. I/O operation port reserves 32 pins where each port has 8 pins. The
other 8 pins are designated as Vcc, GND, XTAL1, XTAL2, RST, EA (bar), ALE/PROG (bar), and
PSEN (bar).
Note: In a DIP package, you can recognize the first pin and the last pin by the cut at the middle
of the IC. The first pin is on the left of this cut mark and the last pin (i.e. the 40th pin in this
case) is to the right of the cut mark.
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It is also designated as AD0-AD7, allowing it to be used as both address and data. In case of
8031 (i.e. ROMless Chip), when we need to access the external ROM, then P0 will be used for
both Address and Data Bus. ALE (Pin no 31) indicates if P0 has address or data. When ALE = 0,
it provides data D0-D7, but when ALE = 1, it has address A0-A7. In case no external memory
connection is available, P0 must be connected externally to a 10K-ohm pull-up resistor.
MOV P0,A ;(Port0 have 1's on every pin so that it works as Input)
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If Port 1 is configured to be used as an output port, then to use it as an input port again, program
it by writing 1 to all of its bits as in the following code.
If Port 2 is configured to be used as an output port, then to use it as an input port again, program
it by writing 1 to all of its bits as in the following code.
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P3.0 RxD 10
P3.1< TxD 11
P3.3< INT1 13
P3.4< T0 14
P3.5< T1 15
P3.6< WR 16
P3.7< Complement of RD 17
Dual role of Port 2 Besides working as I/O, Port P2 is also used to provide 16-bit
address bus for external memory along with Port 0. Port P2 is also designated as (A8
A15), while Port 0 provides the lower 8-bits via A0A7. In other words, we can say that
when an 8051 is connected to an external memory (ROM) which can be maximum up to
64KB and this is possible by 16 bit address bus because we know 216 = 64KB. Port2 is
used for the upper 8-bit of the 16 bits address, and it cannot be used for I/O and this is
the way any Program code of external ROM is addressed.
XTAL1, XTAL2 (Pin no 18 & Pin no 19) 8051 has on-chip oscillator but requires
external clock to run it. A quartz crystal is connected between the XTAL1 & XTAL2 pin of
the chip. This crystal also needs two capacitors of 30pF for generating a signal of desired
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Embedded Systems
RST (Pin No. 9) It is an Input pin and active High pin. Upon applying a high pulse on
this pin, that is 1, the microcontroller will reset and terminate all activities. This process
is known as Power-On Reset. Activating a power-on reset will cause all values in the
register to be lost. It will set a program counter to all 0's. To ensure a valid input of Reset,
the high pulse must be high for a minimum of two machine cycles before it is allowed to
go low, which depends on the capacitor value and the rate at which it charges. (Machine
Cycle is the minimum amount of frequency a single instruction requires in execution).
EA or External Access (Pin No. 31) It is an input pin. This pin is an active low pin;
upon applying a low pulse, it gets activated. In case of microcontroller (8051/52) having
on-chip ROM, the EA (bar) pin is connected to V cc. But in an 8031 microcontroller which
does not have an on-chip ROM, the code is stored in an external ROM and then fetched
by the microcontroller. In this case, we must connect the (pin no 31) EA to Gnd to indicate
that the program code is stored externally.
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PSEN or Program store Enable (Pin No 29) This is also an active low pin, i.e., it
gets activated after applying a low pulse. It is an output pin and used along with the EA
pin in 8031 based (i.e. ROMLESS) Systems to allow storage of program code in external
ROM.
ALE or (Address Latch Enable) This is an Output Pin and is active high. It is especially
used for 8031 IC to connect it to the external memory. It can be used while deciding
whether P0 pins will be used as Address bus or Data bus. When ALE=1, then the P0 pins
work as Data bus and when ALE=0, then the P0 pins act as Address bus.
While accessing a port in a single-bit manner, we use the syntax "SETB X. Y" where X is the port
number (0 to 3), and Y is a bit number (0 to 7) for data bits D0-D7 where D0 is the LSB and D7
is the MSB. For example, "SETB P1.5" sets high bit 5 of port 1.
The following code shows how we can toggle the bit P1.2 continuously.
AGAIN:
SETB P1.2
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ACALL DELAY
CLR P1.2
ACALL DELAY
SJMP AGAIN
Single-Bit Instructions
Instructions Function
JBC bit, target jump to target if bit = 1,clear bit (jump if bit, then clear)
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7. ES Terms Embedded Systems
Program Counter
The Program Counter is a 16- or 32-bit register which contains the address of the next instruction
to be executed. The PC automatically increments to the next sequential memory location every
time an instruction is fetched. Branch, jump, and interrupt operations load the Program Counter
with an address other than the next sequential location.
Activating a power-on reset will cause all values in the register to be lost. It means the value of
the PC (program counter) is 0 upon reset, forcing the CPU to fetch the first opcode from the
ROM memory location 0000. It means we must place the first byte of upcode in ROM location
0000 because that is where the CPU expects to find the first instruction.
Reset Vector
The significance of the reset vector is that it points the processor to the memory address which
contains the firmware's first instruction. Without the Reset Vector, the processor would not know
where to begin execution. Upon reset, the processor loads the Program Counter (PC) with the
reset vector value from a predefined memory location. On CPU08 architecture, this is at location
$FFFE:$FFFF.
When the reset vector is not necessary, developers normally take it for granted and dont
program into the final image. As a result, the processor doesn't start up on the final product. It
is a common mistake that takes place during the debug phase.
Stack Pointer
Stack is implemented in RAM and a CPU register is used to access it called SP (Stack Pointer)
register. SP register is an 8-bit register and can address memory addresses of range 00h to FFh.
Initially, the SP register contains value 07 to point to location 08 as the first location being used
for the stack by the 8051.
When the content of a CPU register is stored in a stack, it is called a PUSH operation. When the
content of a stack is stored in a CPU register, it is called a POP operation. In other words, a
register is pushed onto the stack to save it and popped off the stack to retrieve it.
Infinite Loop
An infinite loop or an endless loop can be identified as a sequence of instructions in a computer
program that executes endlessly in a loop, because of the following reasons:
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Such infinite loops normally caused older operating systems to become unresponsive, as an
infinite loop consumes all the available processor time. I/O operations waiting for user inputs
are also called "infinite loops". One possible cause of a computer "freezing" is an infinite loop;
other causes include deadlock and access violations.
Embedded systems, unlike a PC, never "exit" an application. They idle through an Infinite Loop
waiting for an event to take place in the form of an interrupt, or a pre-scheduled task. In order
to save power, some processors enter special sleep or wait modes instead of idling through
an Infinite Loop, but they will come out of this mode upon either a timer or an External Interrupt.
Interrupts
Interrupts are mostly hardware mechanisms that instruct the program that an event has
occurred. They may occur at any time, and are therefore asynchronous to the program flow.
They require special handling by the processor, and are ultimately handled by a corresponding
Interrupt Service Routine (ISR). Interrupts need to be handled quickly. If you take too much
time servicing an interrupt, then you may miss another interrupt.
ADD+0: 0x12
ADD+1: 0x34
ADD+2: 0x56
ADD+3: 0x78
Little-Endian machines, on the other hand, store the least significant byte of data in the lowest
memory address. A Little-Endian machine stores 0x12345678 as:
ADD+0: 0x78
ADD+1: 0x56
ADD+2: 0x34
ADD+3: 0x12
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8. ES Assembly Language Embedded Systems
Assembly languages were developed to provide mnemonics or symbols for the machine level
code instructions. Assembly language programs consist of mnemonics, thus they should be
translated into machine code. A program that is responsible for this conversion is known as
assembler. Assembly language is often termed as a low-level language because it directly works
with the internal structure of the CPU. To program in assembly language, a programmer must
know all the registers of the CPU.
Different programming languages such as C, C++, Java and various other languages are called
high-level languages because they do not deal with the internal details of a CPU. In contrast, an
assembler is used to translate an assembly language program into machine code (sometimes
also called object code or opcode). Similarly, a compiler translates a high-level language into
machine code. For example, to write a program in C language, one must use a C compiler to
translate the program into machine language.
An instruction tells the CPU what to do, while a directive (also called pseudo-instructions)
gives instruction to the assembler. For example, ADD and MOV instructions are commands which
the CPU runs, while ORG and END are assembler directives. The assembler places the opcode to
the memory location 0 when the ORG directive is used, while END indicates to the end of the
source code. A program language instruction consists of the following four fields
The label field allows the program to refer to a line of code by name. The label fields
cannot exceed a certain number of characters.
The mnemonics and operands fields together perform the real work of the program
and accomplish the tasks. Statements like ADD A , C & MOV C, #68 where ADD and MOV
are the mnemonics, which produce opcodes ; "A, C" and "C, #68" are operands. These
two fields could contain directives. Directives do not generate machine code and are used
only by the assembler, whereas instructions are translated into machine code for the CPU
to execute.
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Notice the Label "HERE" in the program. Any label which refers to an instruction should
be followed by a colon.
First, we use an editor to type in a program similar to the above program. Editors like
MS-DOS EDIT program that comes with all Microsoft operating systems can be used to
create or edit a program. The Editor must be able to produce an ASCII file. The "asm"
extension for the source file is used by an assembler in the next step.
The "asm" source file contains the program code created in Step 1. It is fed to an 8051
assembler. The assembler then converts the assembly language instructions into machine
code instructions and produces an .obj file (object file) and a .lst file (list file). It is also
called as a source file, that's why some assemblers require that this file have the "src"
extensions. The "lst" file is optional. It is very useful to the program because it lists all
the opcodes and addresses as well as errors that the assemblers detected.
Assemblers require a third step called linking. The link program takes one or more object
files and produces an absolute object file with the extension "abs".
Next, the "abs" file is fed to a program called "OH" (object to hex converter), which
creates a file with the extension "hex" that is ready to burn in to the ROM.
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Data Type
The 8051 microcontroller contains a single data type of 8-bits, and each register is also of 8-bits
size. The programmer has to break down data larger than 8-bits (00 to FFH, or to 255 in decimal)
so that it can be processed by the CPU.
DB (Define Byte)
The DB directive is the most widely used data directive in the assembler. It is used to define the
8-bit data. It can also be used to define decimal, binary, hex, or ASCII formats data. For decimal,
the "D" after the decimal number is optional, but it is required for "B" (binary) and "Hl"
(hexadecimal).
To indicate ASCII, simply place the characters in quotation marks ('like this'). The assembler
generates ASCII code for the numbers/characters automatically. The DB directive is the only
directive that can be used to define ASCII strings larger than two characters; therefore, it should
be used for all the ASCII data definitions. Some examples of DB are given below:
ORG 500H
DATA1: DB 28 ;DECIMAL (1C in hex)
DATA2: DB 00110101B ;BINARY (35 in hex)
DATA3: DB 39H ;HEX
ORG 510H
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Either single or double quotes can be used around ASCII strings. DB is also used to allocate
memory in byte-sized chunks.
Assembler Directives
Some of the directives of 8051 are as follows:
ORG (origin) The origin directive is used to indicate the beginning of the address. It
takes the numbers in hexa or decimal format. If H is provided after the number, the
number is treated as hexa, otherwise decimal. The assembler converts the decimal
number to hexa.
END directive It indicates the end of the source (asm) file. The END directive is the
last line of the program; anything after the END directive is ignored by the assembler.
Each label name must be unique. The names used for labels in assembly language
programming consist of alphabetic letters in both uppercase and lowercase, number 0
through 9, and special characters such as question mark (?), period (.), at the rate @,
underscore (_), and dollar($).
Reserved words cannot be used as a label in the program. For example, ADD and MOV
words are the reserved words, since they are instruction mnemonics.
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9. ES Registers Embedded Systems
Registers are used in the CPU to store information on temporarily basis which could be data to
be processed, or an address pointing to the data which is to be fetched. In 8051, there is one
data type is of 8-bits, from the MSB (most significant bit) D7 to the LSB (least significant bit)
D0. With 8-bit data type, any data type larger than 8-bits must be broken into 8-bit chunks
before it is processed.
The most widely used registers of the 8051 are A (accumulator), B, R0-R7, DPTR (data pointer),
and PC (program counter). All these registers are of 8-bits, except DPTR and PC.
Accumulator
R register
B register
Data Pointer (DPTR)
Program Counter (PC)
Stack Pointer (SP)
Accumulator
The accumulator, register A, is used for all arithmetic and logic operations. If the accumulator is
not present, then every result of each calculation (addition, multiplication, shift, etc.) is to be
stored into the main memory. Access to main memory is slower than access to a register like
the accumulator because the technology used for the large main memory is slower (but cheaper)
than that used for a register.
ADD A,R4
After executing this instruction, the accumulator will contain the value 30. Thus "R" registers are
very important auxiliary or helper registers. The Accumulator alone would not be very useful
if it were not for these "R" registers. The "R" registers are meant for temporarily storage of
values.
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Let us take another example. We will add the values in R1 and R2 together and then subtract
the values of R3 and R4 from the result.
As you can see, we used R5 to temporarily hold the sum of R3 and R4. Of course, this is not the
most efficient way to calculate (R1 + R2) (R3 + R4), but it does illustrate the use of the "R"
registers as a way to store values temporarily.
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Embedded Systems
pointing to data. It is used by the 8051 to access external memory using the address indicated
by DPTR. DPTR is the only 16-bit register available and is often used to store 2-byte values.
Branch, jump, and interrupt operations load the Program Counter with an address other than
the next sequential location. Activating a power-on reset will cause all values in the register to
be lost. It means the value of the PC is 0 upon reset, forcing the CPU to fetch the first opcode
from the ROM location 0000. It means we must place the first byte of upcode in ROM location
0000 because that is where the CPU expects to find the first instruction.
This order of operation is important. SP will be initialized to 07h when the 8051 is initialized. If
a value is pushed onto the stack at the same time, the value will be stored in the internal RAM
address 08h because the 8051 will first increment the value of SP (from 07h to 08h) and then
will store the pushed value at that memory address (08h). SP is modified directly by the 8051
by six instructions: PUSH, POP, ACALL, LCALL, RET, and RETI.
The first location of the program ROM inside the 8051 has the address of 0000H, whereas the
last location can be different depending on the size of the ROM on the chip. Among the 8051
family members, AT8951 has $k bytes of on-chip ROM having a memory address of 0000 (first
location) to 0FFFH (last location).
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The PSW Register contains that status bits that reflect the current status of the CPU.
CY AC F0 RS1 RS0 OV - P
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We can select the corresponding Register Bank bit using RS0 and RS1 bits.
0 0 0 00H-07H
0 1 1 08H-0FH
1 0 2 10H-17H
1 1 3 18H-1FH
CY, the carry flag This carry flag is set (1) whenever there is a carry out from the D7
bit. It is affected after an 8-bit addition or subtraction operation. It can also be reset to 1
or 0 directly by an instruction such as "SETB C" and "CLR C" where "SETB" stands for set
bit carry and "CLR" stands for clear carry.
AC, auxiliary carry flag If there is a carry from D3 and D4 during an ADD or SUB
operation, the AC bit is set; otherwise, it is cleared. It is used for the instruction to perform
binary coded decimal arithmetic.
P, the parity flag The parity flag represents the number of 1's in the accumulator
register only. If the A register contains odd number of 1's, then P = 1; and for even
number of 1's, P = 0.
OV, the overflow flag This flag is set whenever the result of a signed number operation
is too large causing the high-order bit to overflow into the sign bit. It is used only to detect
errors in signed arithmetic operations.
Example
Show the status of CY, AC, and P flags after the addition of 9CH and 64H in the following
instruction.
MOV A, #9CH
ADD A, # 64H
Solution: 9C 10011100
+64 01100100
100 00000000
CY = 1 since there is a carry beyond D7 bit
AC = 0 since there is a carry from D3 to D4
P = 0 because the accumulator has even number of 1's
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10. ES Register Bank / Stack Embedded Systems
The 8051 microcontroller has a total of 128 bytes of RAM. We will discuss about the allocation
of these 128 bytes of RAM and examine their usage as stack and register.
32 bytes from 00H to 1FH locations are set aside for register banks and the stack.
16 bytes from 20H to2FH locations are set aside for bit-addressable read/write memory.
80 bytes from 30H to 7FH locations are used for read and write storage; it is called as
scratch pad. These 80 locations RAM are widely used for the purpose of storing data
and parameters by 8051 programmers.
0 to 7 are set aside for bank 0 of R0R7 where R0 is RAM location 0, R1 is RAM location 1, R2 is
location 2, and so on, until the memory location 7, which belongs to R7 of bank 0.
The second bank of registers R0R7 starts at RAM location 08 and goes to locations OFH. The
third bank of R0R7 starts at memory location 10H and goes to location to 17H. Finally, RAM
locations 18H to 1FH are set aside for the fourth bank of R0R7.
0 0 Bank0
0 1 Bank1
1 0 Bank2
1 1 Bank3
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11. ES Instructions Embedded Systems
The flow of program proceeds in a sequential manner, from one instruction to the next
instruction, unless a control transfer instruction is executed. The various types of control transfer
instruction in assembly language include conditional or unconditional jumps and call instructions.
The register is loaded with the counter for the number of repetitions prior to the start of the
loop. In this instruction, both the registers decrement and the decision to jump are combined
into a single instruction. The registers can be any of R0R7. The counter can also be a RAM
location.
Example
Multiply 25 by 10 using the technique of repeated addition.
Solution: Multiplication can be achieved by adding the multiplicand repeatedly, as many times
as the multiplier. For example,
25 * 10 = 250(FAH)
25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 = 250
Drawback in 8051: Looping action with the instruction DJNZ Reg label is limited to 256
iterations only. If a conditional jump is not taken, then the instruction following the jump is
executed.
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Example
Write a program to:
Solution: Since 700 is greater than 255 (the maximum capacity of any register), two registers
are used to hold the count. The following code shows how to use two registers, R2 and R3, for
the count.
Instruction Action
JZ Jump if A = 0
JNZ Jump if A 0
JC Jump if CY = 1
JNC Jump if CY 1
JB Jump if bit = 1
JNZ (jump if A is not equal to 0) In this instruction, the content of the accumulator
is checked to be non-zero. If it is not zero, then the 8051 jumps to the target address.
JNC (Jump if no carry, jumps if CY = 0) The Carry flag bit in the flag (or PSW)
register is used to make the decision whether to jump or not "JNC label". The CPU looks
at the carry flag to see if it is raised (CY = 1). If it is not raised, then the CPU starts to
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fetch and execute instructions from the address of the label. If CY = 1, it will not jump
but will execute the next instruction below JNC.
Note: It must be noted that all conditional jumps are short jumps, i.e., the address of the target
must be within 128 to +127 bytes of the contents of the program counter.
LJMP (long jump) LJMP is 3-byte instruction in which the first byte represents opcode,
and the second and third bytes represent the 16-bit address of the target location. The
2-byte target address is to allow a jump to any memory location from 0000 to FFFFH.
SJMP (short jump) It is a 2-byte instruction where the first byte is the opcode and
the second byte is the relative address of the target location. The relative address ranges
from 00H to FFH which is divided into forward and backward jumps; that is, within 128
to +127 bytes of memory relative to the address of the current PC (program counter). In
case of forward jump, the target address can be within a space of 127 bytes from the
current PC. In case of backward jump, the target address can be within 128 bytes from
the current PC.
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CALL Instructions
CALL is used to call a subroutine or method. Subroutines are used to perform operations or tasks
that need to be performed frequently. This makes a program more structured and saves memory
space. There are two instructions: LCALL and ACALL.
To make a successful return to the point after execution of the called subroutine, the CPU saves
the address of the instruction immediately below the LCALL on the stack. Thus, when a
subroutine is called, the control is transferred to that subroutine, and the processor saves the
PC (program counter) on the stack and begins to fetch instructions from the new location. The
instruction RET (return) transfers the control back to the caller after finishing execution of the
subroutine. Every subroutine uses RET as the last instruction.
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12. ES Addressing Modes Embedded Systems
An addressing mode refers to how you are addressing a given memory location. There are five
different ways or five addressing modes to execute this instruction which are as follows:
MOV A, #6AH
MOV A, #data
The following illustration describes the above instruction and its execution. The opcode 74H is
saved at 0202 address. The data 6AH is saved at 0203 address in the program memory. After
reading the opcode 74H, the data at the next program memory address is transferred to
accumulator A (E0H is the address of accumulator). Since the instruction is of 2-bytes and is
executed in one cycle, the program counter will be incremented by 2 and will point to 0204 of
the program memory.
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Note: The '#' symbol before 6AH indicates that the operand is a data (8 bit). In the absence of
'#', the hexadecimal number would be taken as an address.
MOV A, 04H
The register bank#0 (4th register) has the address 04H. When the MOV instruction is executed,
the data stored in register 04H is moved to the accumulator. As the register 04H holds the data
1FH, 1FH is moved to the accumulator.
Note: We have not used '#' in direct addressing mode, unlike immediate mode. If we had used
'#', the data value 04H would have been transferred to the accumulator instead of 1FH.
Now, take a look at the following illustration. It shows how the instruction gets executed.
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As shown in the above illustration, this is a 2-byte instruction which requires 1 cycle to complete.
The PC will be incremented by 2 and will point to 0204. The opcode for the instruction MOV A,
address is E5H. When the instruction at 0202 is executed (E5H), the accumulator is made active
and ready to receive data. Then the PC goes to the next address as 0203 and looks up the
address of the location of 04H where the source data (to be transferred to accumulator) is
located. At 04H, the control finds the data 1F and transfers it to the accumulator and hence the
execution is completed.
MOV A, R4
At a time, the registers can take values from R0 to R7. There are 32 such registers. In order to
use 32 registers with just 8 variables to address registers, register banks are used. There are 4
register banks named from 0 to 3. Each bank comprises of 8 registers named from R0 to R7.
At a time, a single register bank can be selected. Selection of a register bank is made possible
through a Special Function Register (SFR) named Processor Status Word (PSW). PSW is
an 8-bit SFR where each bit can be programmed as required. Bits are designated from PSW.0 to
PSW.7. PSW.3 and PSW.4 are used to select register banks.
Now, take a look at the following illustration to get a clear understanding of how it works.
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Opcode EC is used for MOV A, R4. The opcode is stored at the address 0202 and when it is
executed, the control goes directly to R4 of the respected register bank (that is selected in PSW).
If register bank #0 is selected, then the data from R4 of register bank #0 will be moved to the
accumulator. Here 2F is stored at 04H. 04H represents the address of R4 of register bank #0.
Data (2F) movement is highlighted in bold. 2F is getting transferred to the accumulator from
data memory location 0C H and is shown as dotted line. 0CH is the address location of Register
4 (R4) of register bank #1. The instruction above is 1 byte and requires 1 cycle for complete
execution. What it means is, you can save program memory by using register direct addressing
mode.
MOV A, @R0
Here the value inside R0 is considered as an address, which holds the data to be transferred to
the accumulator. Example: If R0 has the value 20H, and data 2FH is stored at the address 20H,
then the value 2FH will get transferred to the accumulator after executing this instruction. See
the following illustration.
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So the opcode for MOV A, @R0 is E6H. Assuming that the register bank #0 is selected, the R0
of register bank #0 holds the data 20H. Program control moves to 20H where it locates the data
2FH and it transfers 2FH to the accumulator. This is a 1-byte instruction and the program counter
increments by 1 and moves to 0203 of the program memory.
Note: Only R0 and R1 are allowed to form a register indirect addressing instruction. In other
words, the programmer can create an instruction either using @R0 or @R1. All register banks
are allowed.
MOVC A, @A+DPTR
and
MOVC A, @A+PC
where DPTR is the data pointer and PC is the program counter (both are 16-bit registers).
Consider the first example.
MOVC A, @A+DPTR
The source operand is @A+DPTR. It contains the source data from this location. Here we are
adding the contents of DPTR with the current content of the accumulator. This addition will give
a new address which is the address of the source data. The data pointed by this address is then
transferred to the accumulator.
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The opcode is 93H. DPTR has the value 01FE, where 01 is located in DPH (higher 8 bits) and FE
is located in DPL (lower 8 bits). Accumulator has the value 02H. Then a 16-bit addition is
performed and 01FE H+02H results in 0200 H. Data at the location 0200H will get transferred
to the accumulator. The previous value inside the accumulator (02H) will be replaced with the
new data from 0200H. The new data in the accumulator is highlighted in the illustration.
This is a 1-byte instruction with 2 cycles needed for execution and the execution time required
for this instruction is high compared to previous instructions (which were all 1 cycle each).
The other example MOVC A, @A+PC works the same way as the above example. Instead of
adding DPTR with the accumulator, here the data inside the program counter (PC) is added with
the accumulator to obtain the target address.
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13. ES Special Function Registers Embedded Systems
A Special Function Register (or Special Purpose Register, or simply Special Register) is a register
within a microprocessor that controls or monitors the various functions of a microprocessor. As
the special registers are closely tied to some special function or status of the processor, they
might not be directly writable by normal instructions (like add, move, etc.). Instead, some
special registers in some processor architectures require special instructions to modify them.
In the 8051, register A, B, DPTR, and PSW are a part of the group of registers commonly referred
to as SFR (special function registers). An SFR can be accessed by its name or by its address.
Byte
Bit Address
Address
FF
F0 F7 F6 F5 F4 F3 F2 F1 F0 B
E0 E7 E6 E5 E4 E3 E2 E1 E0 ACC
D0 D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 - D0 PSW
B8 - - - BC BB BA B9 B8 IP
B0 B7 B6 B5 B4 B3 B2 B1 B0 P3
A2 AF - - AC AB AA A9 A8 IE
A0 A7 A6 A5 A4 A3 A2 A1 A0 P2
90 97 96 95 94 93 92 91 90 P1
8D Not
bit Addressable TH1
8C Not
bit Addressable TH0
8B Not
bit Addressable TL1
8A Not
bit Addressable TL0
89 Not
bit Addressable TMOD
88 8F 8E 8D 8C 8B 8A 89 88 TCON
87 Not bit Addressable PCON
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A special function register can have an address between 80H to FFH. These addresses
are above 80H, as the addresses from 00 to 7FH are the addresses of RAM memory inside
the 8051.
Not all the address space of 80 to FF are used by the SFR. Unused locations, 80H to FFH,
are reserved and must not be used by the 8051 programmer.
In the following example, the SFR registers names are replaced with their addresses.
CY AC F0 RS1 RS0 OV P
We can select the corresponding Register Bank bit using RS0 and RS1 bits.
0 0 0 00H-07H
0 1 1 08H-0FH
1 0 2 10H-17H
1 1 3 18H-1FH
The Program Status Word (PSW) contains status bits to reflect the current state of the CPU. The
8051 variants provide one special function register, PSW, with this status information. The 8251
provides two additional status flags, Z and N, which are available in a second special function
register called PSW1.
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14. ES Timer / Counter Embedded Systems
A timer is a specialized type of clock which is used to measure time intervals. A timer that
counts from zero upwards for measuring time elapsed is often called a stopwatch. It is a device
that counts down from a specified time interval and used to generate a time delay, for example,
an hourglass is a timer.
A counter is a device that stores (and sometimes displays) the number of times a particular
event or process occurred, with respect to a clock signal. It is used to count the events happening
outside the microcontroller. In electronics, counters can be implemented quite easily using
register-type circuits such as a flip-flop.
Timer Counter
Maximum count rate is 1/12 of the oscillator Maximum count rate is 1/24 of the oscillator
frequency. frequency.
A timer uses the frequency of the internal A counter uses an external signal to count
clock, and generates delay. pulses.
Timer 0 Register
The 16-bit register of Timer 0 is accessed as low- and high-byte. The low-byte register is called
TL0 (Timer 0 low byte) and the high-byte register is called TH0 (Timer 0 high byte). These
registers can be accessed like any other register. For example, the instruction MOV TL0, #4H
moves the value into the low-byte of Timer #0.
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Timer 1 Register
The 16-bit register of Timer 1 is accessed as low- and high-byte. The low-byte register is called
TL1 (Timer 1 low byte) and the high-byte register is called TH1 (Timer 1 high byte). These
registers can be accessed like any other register. For example, the instruction MOV TL1, #4H
moves the value into the low-byte of Timer 1.
Gate : When set, the timer only runs while INT(0,1) is high.
M1 : Mode bit 1.
M0 : Mode bit 0.
GATE
Every timer has a means of starting and stopping. Some timers do this by software, some by
hardware, and some have both software and hardware controls. 8051 timers have both software
and hardware controls. The start and stop of a timer is controlled by software using the
instruction SETB TR1 and CLR TR1 for timer 1, and SETB TR0 and CLR TR0 for timer 0.
The SETB instruction is used to start it and it is stopped by the CLR instruction. These instructions
start and stop the timers as long as GATE = 0 in the TMOD register. Timers can be started and
stopped by an external source by making GATE = 1 in the TMOD register.
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Timer frequency is always 1/12th of the frequency of the crystal attached to the 8051. Although
various 8051 based systems have an XTAL frequency of 10 MHz to 40 MHz, we normally work
with the XTAL frequency of 11.0592 MHz. It is because the baud rate for serial communication
of the 8051.XTAL =11.0592 allows the 8051 system to communicate with the PC with no errors.
M1 / M2
M1 M2 Mode
1 1 Spilt mode.
The benefit of auto-reload mode is that you can have the timer to always contain a value from
200 to 255. If you use mode 0 or 1, you would have to check in the code to see the overflow
and, in that case, reset the timer to 200. In this case, precious instructions check the value
and/or get reloaded. In mode 2, the microcontroller takes care of this. Once you have configured
a timer in mode 2, you don't have to worry about checking to see if the timer has overflowed,
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nor do you have to worry about resetting the value because the microcontroller hardware will
do it all for you. The auto-reload mode is used for establishing a common baud rate.
When Timer 0 is in split mode, the real Timer 1 (i.e. TH1 and TL1) can be set in modes 0, 1 or
2, but it cannot be started/stopped as the bits that do that are now linked to TH0. The real
timer 1 will be incremented with every machine cycle.
Initializing a Timer
Decide the timer mode. Consider a 16-bit timer that runs continuously, and is independent of
any external pins.
Initialize the TMOD SFR. Use the lowest 4 bits of TMOD and consider Timer 0. Keep the two bits,
GATE 0 and C/T 0, as 0, since we want the timer to be independent of the external pins. As 16-
bit mode is timer mode 1, clear T0M1 and set T0M0. Effectively, the only bit to turn on is bit 0
of TMOD. Now execute the following instruction:
MOV TMOD,#01h
Now, Timer 0 is in 16-bit timer mode, but the timer is not running. To start the timer in running
mode, set the TR0 bit by executing the following instruction:
SETB TR0
Now, Timer 0 will immediately start counting, being incremented once every machine cycle.
Reading a Timer
A 16-bit timer can be read in two ways. Either read the actual value of the timer as a 16-bit
number, or you detect when the timer has overflowed.
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15. ES Interrupts Embedded Systems
Hardware Interrupt
A hardware interrupt is an electronic alerting signal sent to the processor from an external
device, like a disk controller or an external peripheral. For example, when we press a key on the
keyboard or move the mouse, they trigger hardware interrupts which cause the processor to
read the keystroke or mouse position.
Software Interrupt
A software interrupt is caused either by an exceptional condition or a special instruction in the
instruction set which causes an interrupt when it is executed by the processor. For example, if
the processor's arithmetic logic unit runs a command to divide a number by zero, to cause a
divide-by-zero exception, thus causing the computer to abandon the calculation or display an
error message. Software interrupt instructions work similar to subroutine calls.
What is Polling?
The state of continuous monitoring is known as polling. The microcontroller keeps checking the
status of other devices; and while doing so, it does no other operation and consumes all its
processing time for monitoring. This problem can be addressed by using interrupts.
In the interrupt method, the controller responds only when an interruption occurs. Thus, the
controller is not required to regularly monitor the status (flags, signals etc.) of interfaced and
inbuilt devices.
Interrupt Polling
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Reset 0000 9
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1. When the reset pin is activated, the 8051 jumps to the address location 0000. This is
power-up reset.
2. Two interrupts are set aside for the timers: one for timer 0 and one for timer 1. Memory
locations are 000BH and 001BH respectively in the interrupt vector table.
3. Two interrupts are set aside for hardware external interrupts. Pin no. 12 and Pin no. 13
in Port 3 are for the external hardware interrupts INT0 and INT1, respectively. Memory
locations are 0003H and 0013H respectively in the interrupt vector table.
4. Serial communication has a single interrupt that belongs to both receive and transmit.
Memory location 0023H belongs to this interrupt.
1. The microcontroller closes the currently executing instruction and saves the address of
the next instruction (PC) on the stack.
2. It also saves the current status of all the interrupts internally (i.e., not on the stack).
3. It jumps to the memory location of the interrupt vector table that holds the address of
the interrupts service routine.
4. The microcontroller gets the address of the ISR from the interrupt vector table and jumps
to it. It starts to execute the interrupt service subroutine, which is RETI (return from
interrupt).
5. Upon executing the RETI instruction, the microcontroller returns to the location where it
was interrupted. First, it gets the program counter (PC) address from the stack by
popping the top bytes of the stack into the PC. Then, it start to execute from that address.
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IE (interrupt enable) register is responsible for enabling and disabling the interrupt. IE is a bit-
addressable register.
EA Global enable/disable.
- Undefined.
1. Bit D7 of the IE register (EA) must be high to allow the rest of register to take effect.
2. If EA = 1, interrupts will be enabled and will be responded to, if their corresponding bits
in IE are high. If EA = 0, no interrupts will respond, even if their associated pins in the
IE register are high.
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The following figure shows the bits of IP register. Upon reset, the IP register contains all 0's. To
give a higher priority to any of the interrupts, we make the corresponding bit in the IP register
high.
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